Partisan spatial sorting in the United States: A theoretical and empirical overview

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Kaplan, Ethan; Spenkuch, Joerg L.; Sullivan, Rebecca
• 署名单位: University System of Maryland; University of Maryland College Park; Northwestern University; Federal Housing Finance Agency
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2022.104668
• 发表日期: 2022
• 关键词: Sorting; polarization; voting; ELECTIONS; ideology; partisanship

摘要

We develop a variance-like index of heterogeneity in partisanship and use it to measure spatial sorting. We prove that our index is the only one (up to a linear transformation) that satisfies seven theoretical properties, all of which are intuitively desirable. Based on this index we document the long-run evolution of geographic sorting along partisan lines in the American electorate. We provide evidence that spatial cleavages have increased dramatically since the mid-twentieth century. At no point since the Civil War have partisans been as clustered within the boundaries of individual states as today. Nonetheless, even when geographic sorting is measured at the precinct level, differences across communities tend to be significantly smaller than differences within. In this sense, the American electorate continues to be more diverse within than across areas.(c) 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.